Bitcoin Value Can Reach $50k this Year

Bitcoin value has dropped by almost 45% after hitting a high of almost $20k this month but some experts feel the crypto currency is set to climb again in 2018

LONDON, ENGLAND, February 02, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Investors who joined late will feel the latest headline about Bitcoin value is a bad joke. Most people who invested in Bitcoin recently are sitting on negative equity or have cashed out losing.

Ethereum and Ripple backers have similar stories to share with their Bitcoin owning counterparts. But for portfolio manager Jeet Sign cryptocurrency volatility isn't surprising and he envisages Bitcoin's value hitting $50k this year.

Singh gave his views about cryptocurrencies to RT while attending the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. He's been operating in the cryptocurrency space for the last six years. He's seen similar volatility time and again. He's also experienced fluctuations by more than 80% and above on a regular basis.

Singh drew comparisons between cryptocurrency and the early performance of Microsoft and Apple stock.

"If you look at Microsoft or Apple when they went public their stocks were very volatile because the market wasn't mature," he said.

The lack of vendors accepting cryptocurrencies as payment results in cryptocurrencies being used more like as a store of value. However, in countries with high inflation (Indonesia and Thailand) cryptocurrencies are more readily accepted.

Bitcoin qualified differently around the world

In different countries bitcoin is qualified differently," explained Singh. It is a commodity in the US, a currency in Switzerland "but to me it's more than a currency."

He predicts "bitcoin could definitely see $50,000 in 2018" but that it's volatility will continue.

Singh's outlook should bring some optimism to Bitcoin investors who bought into the digital currency recently and fear for their investment. His observations reinforce the belief that cryptocurrency is here to stay.

Big financial institutions are still wrestling with the dilemma of denouncing cryptocurrency or joining those investing in it.

The combined market value of cryptocurrencies has gone from less than $20bn to more than $540bn making it impossible to ignore.

Blockchain is the shared ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies. It also used to share data between companies, people and institutions.

The technology could also lead to stock exchanges and clearing houses being disintermediated. If smaller banks start using blockchain global forex trading houses like JPMorgan and Citigroup could lose out.

To reflect the seriousness of the threat some feel it poses the first session on "the crypto-asset bubble" was held at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Despite the fact that most banks refuse to touch cryptocurrencies many big financial institutions are investing time and considerable money exploring the potential of blockchain technology to improve post-trade settlement in financial markets and cross-border payments to trade finance and syndicated loans.

Banks are calling on regulators to tackle the new crypto-markets sooner rather than later. "We can't deny that things are changing," says Benoit Legrand, chief innovation officer at Dutch bank ING. "The world will include cryptocurrencies in the way we work in the next 10 years. But it needs to be regulated. This is absolutely key."

Antony Jenkins, the former Barclays boss who sits on the board of the cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain, believes the impact on financial services and even money itself will be "profound".

"If you can imagine a world in which you did have one global digital currency, imagine what the benefit of that would be, imagine all the friction and the cost that would come out of the system," he said in a recent FT video interview. "These things of course might be far in the future, but I don't think they are very far in the future."

There's further evidence that cryptocurrency is going to be around in the long-term. Moscow confirmed this month that President Vladimir Putin has commissioned work on establishing a cryptocurrency. Putin believes the shared ledger technology on which Bitcoin and other digital currencies are based could help it circumvent western sanctions.

Sergei Glazev, an economic adviser to Putin, spoke to the Financial Times recently. He said: "This instrument suits us very well for sensitive activity on behalf of the state. We can settle accounts with our counterparties all over the world with no regard for sanctions."

He added that the cryptocurrency would be "the same rouble, but its circulation would be restricted in a certain way", allowing the Kremlin to track its every move.

Putin met Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin

The idea gained momentum after a meeting between Putin and Russia-born founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum Vitalik Buterin.

While cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin provide their owners with an element of anonymity it is not clear how a cryptorouble would help Russian companies and individuals to escape international sanctions or avoid detection by US authorities.

It is also unclear whether the cryptorouble would be issued by the Russian central bank or the country's commercial banks and who would be able to open an account.

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